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Thursday, April 30, 2015

It is almost
three years ago when I first read Germinal, and instantly fell in love with the
book—and much more with the author! This year I have decided to give it a
second read; to see if I will still find it as great as my first reading. The
interesting thing of rereading is that you know what you’re going to get
throughout the book, and especially in the end, you know how the story would
go. In the case of Zola books, you might not feel the “blow” as intensely as
when you read it for the first time. That is what I got from my Germinal second reading.

I also found
out that when the blow was softened, the second read allowed me to feel more of
the emotion of each character, and to relate to them better than before.
Moreover, I could see now why Germinal
has become Zola’s masterpiece. From eight of his novels—seven from The Rougon
Macquart series—I have read so far, Germinal is the most beautiful in term of
writing. It is more flowing; not as intense as Zola’s other books, and Zola did
not put his focus entirely on the working class, but also on the bourgeoisie. It
put more emphasizes on how the society needed to change; because both sides
were slowly crumbling. If the system remained unchanged, the Voreaux tragedy
will crush everything in it; just like a giant beast who swallowed them up greedily—as
Zola put it. The tragic incident between old Bonnemort and the daughter of
Voreux’ stock holder highlighted the faulted system. It happened naturally,
it’s nobody’s fault it seemed, but the old corrupted system.

One thing that
perhaps distinguished Germinal from
its siblings in The Rougon-Macquart seriesis the hopeful ending; it really effaced the dark tragedy of the Voreux, as
if to say that the miners’ sacrifices will not be useless after all; that there
is always new and brighter hope which is germinating from the debris of a
revolution.

Zola is
always good at painting irony in his novels. He described events so perfectly
detailed that you would get the irony without further explanations. When the
strike was on going, the manager and the stock holder (the bourgeois) were
having a luncheon. While the miners were starving and risked their lives by
doing the strike to ask for justice, their masters’ concern was at whether the pâtissier’s delivery boy could deliver
the vol-au-vent crusts on time for
lunch, despite of the strike. The bitter irony lays in the ending of chapter
six-part five; it was the scene after the strike was over, when the sun had
set, and everything was calm again:

“…The plain
was drowning beneath the thick night; there were only the black furnaces and
the coke ovens ablaze against the tragic sky. Heavily, the gallop of the
gendarmes approached; they landed up in an indistinguishable somber mass. And
behind them, entrusted to their care, the Marchiennes pâtissier’s vehicle arrived at last, a little covered cart out of
which jumped a small drudge of a boy, who quietly went about unpacking the vol-au-vent crusts.”

What an
ending!—and Zola was great in closing each of the chapters in exactly that beautiful-bitter-ironic
way. Some are more beautiful than others, but my favorite remains still in the
very ending:

Now
the April sun, in the open sky, was shining in its glory, warming the earth as
it went into labour. From its fertile flanks life was leaping forth, buds were
bursting into green leaves, and the fields were quivering with the growth of
the grass. On every side seeds were swelling, stretching out, cracking the
plain, filled by the need of heat and light. An overflow of sap flowed with
whispering voices, the sound of the germs expanded in a great kiss. Again and
again, more and more distinctly, as though they had come right up to the soil,
the comrades were hammering. In the fiery rays of the sun, on this youthful
morning, the country was pregnant with this rumbling. Men were springing forth,
a black avenging army, germinating slowly in the furrows, growing up for the
harvests of the next century, and their germination would soon overturn the
earth.

Again—what an
ending!

On my previous post I have written about my first impression on (second reading of)
Germinal; particularly about Étienne. Well, I think, apart from his personal
inherited weakness and indecisiveness, Étienne is a kind man. I liked him for
his ability to move forward from past faults, for his kindness towards others;
in particular Catherine and the Maheus, and for his principles.

My favorite
passage is the one concerning Bataille, the old horse. The way Zola portrayed its agony is
brilliant! I think I shed tears for the horse more than for the Maheus’! Zola’s
words can be very touching too at times. And reading this passage, only now
that I realized that what Bataille felt actually reflected the agony of the
miners. And that came in this poetic passage:

“…He galloped on and on, bending his head,
drawing up his feet, racing these narrow tubes in the earth, filled with his
great body. Road succeeded to road, and the junctions opened into forks,
without any hesitation on his part. Where was he going? Back, perhaps, towards
the vision of his youth, to the mill where he had been born on the bank of the
Scarpe, to the confused recollection of the sun burning in the air like a great
lamp. He desired to live, his beast’s memory awoke; the longing to breathe once
more the air of the plains drove him straight onwards to the discovery of the
hole, the exit beneath the warm sun, into the light.”

It was the
agony of a creature who had been used from his early days; who never knew other
existence besides what he was submissively forced to take; but one day a
longing for a better existence would stir deep in his heart; which made him
galloping furiously into the light. It made one reflect a lot, didn’t it?

Now, I have
been praising this book over and over again, here, as well as in other
comments/thoughts, and I don’t think there would be enough words to describe
how I love Germinal! I love the
beautiful narration, love the vivid description of the mines (Zola took much
efforts in doing observation in this), and love the hopeful atmosphere. In
short, I love everything about this book! If you aren’t yet convinced to read
it by now, try at least!

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Shame on me,
really, for after three years having been Émile Zola’s hardcore fan, I have
never read any of his biographies! So in Zoladdiction 2015 I would not read any
Zola’s novels (only Germinal rereading), to make room for his biography by
F.W.J. Hemmings.

Hemmings
covered his investigation from the beginning of 19th century. Zola’s
mother was a humble-birth young girl of a glazier family, who could not have
afforded her dowry if a forty four year old Francesco Zola—a son of a
distinguished military family of Republic of Venice—has never been attracted to
her. Zola’s father was a genius in constructive business, but never succeeded
until his death when Zola was only seven years old. After paying off the debts,
the Zolas must leave Aix-en-Provence to live very humbly in Paris with the aids
of some friends. It was perhaps his memory of Aix’ country landscape which inspired
Zola to write beautiful narration about nature in his novels.

Émile Zola
arrived in Paris in 1851, the era when Baron Haussmann was renovating Paris
into modern industrial city. If you are reading (or have read) Zola’s The
Rougon Macquart series, this theme would not be unfamiliar to you. The world was
changing, and so was Paris. Zola’s interest, besides in literature, laid in
art, especially paintings. It was the era when young Impressionists strove to reform
the old Romantic style, and to get their paintings recognized and exhibited in
The Académie des Beaux-Arts. Zola fought for them through his journals, and by
hosting meetings in his place, just as Pierre Sandoz did in The Masterpiece. And indeed, most of his
novels were inspired by real facts or things he witnessed from his life; including
some of his female characters.

Through this
book you will get to know the real Émile Zola, with all his struggles in life
and in writing. Yes, in writing. Reading his books, you will notice that he was
not a writer who would sit on his desk and pour out his imagination on paper
just like that. No, he would think of the theme first, then creating the
structure, breaking it down into parts or even chapters, studying (from books
or observing) the objects he would write about, and finally filling it with his
narration. He was not an impulsive person; but rather a genius who would
calculate everything beforehand to ensure that he would come up with the
desired result. That is Zola.

I think in a
way Zola and I have something in common; we both don’t belong to the majority,
and often felt lonely because we were different, for it’s hard to find friends
who share our ideas. Once we have an opinion (and we always know we are right),
we don’t like to deny it just because our lot don’t approve of it. What I
admire in him mostly is his brave act of attacking the wrong accusation of
Alfred Dreyfus. And he did it not for fame or image building, but because he
always fight for the truth; dared to take risk for something he believed was
right.

In short,
this will tell you the real personalities of a Zola, and it helps a lot to
relate with his novels when we are reading it.

Friday, April 24, 2015

I am an
Agatha Christie’s fan since in high school, but this was my first time of
reading her play. Now I must admire Christie more than before, as she turned
out to be as good a playwright as she was a crime-novelist.

This play is
about Leonard Vole, a young man who was charged for murdering an old woman. The
scene moved alternately from Sir Wilfrid’s chamber—the defense counsel, to the Center
Criminal Court—better known as The Old Bailey. Emily French, a rich old woman,
was fond of Leonard for having helped her in a little incident—after which she
was very grateful. One night Leonard visited her; and not long after he went
home, Emily was found dead with a blow on her head. Leonard was afraid that the
police might think he was the murderer, so he asked Mr. Mayhew—his
solicitor—for advice. They came to Sir Wilfrid’s office, and during their
discussion, the police came to arrest Leonard. And so Sir Wilfrid came to be
Leonard’s defense counsel.

Apart from
the rather awkward opening scene, I liked this play. As usual, Christie could
peel her characters layer by layer to their (almost) real hearts and minds; but
still keep the biggest twisting surprise at the end. She wrote it very detailed
too; it would be easy to perform it, as she described each little detail of the
scene, down to exact location of the furniture. She also described the
characters’ movement, for instance: not only “on the desk”, but also “on the
down right corner of the desk”. Without watching it on stage, you could easily
use your imagination to “perform” it in your own head. And if you read it carefully,
some scenes are a bit funny, which will make you grinning amidst the gloomy
atmosphere of the brutal murder.

Four and a
half stars for Witness for Prosecution; a quite enjoyable modern drama from
Dame Agatha Christie.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

We have come
to the first quarter of #LitMoveRC, April Romanticism! This month has been a
hectic month for me, for I am also hosting Zoladdiction 2015. So far I have
finished Ivanhoe; and still planned
to read Dumas’ The Black Tulip if I can
finish my Zola reading and Agatha Christie’s play. Oh…that is why you should
not host more than one challenge at a time! *self note*

Anyway, here
is a question for you…

We still
have eight or nine more movements until December; which one is the most
exciting for you? Why?

For me, it’s
Naturalism in August, because I’ll be reading two of my most favorite classics
authors: Émile Zola and Edith Wharton. But Victorian comes closer behind, when
I’d be reading still another favorite: Charles Dickens!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Classics
Salon is another weekly meme, hosted by Mangoes and Cherry Blossoms, to discuss
or blog about current classics that we are reading. This post should be
published on Friday, however I was so hectic around Easter, that I missed it
until today. OK, I’m four days late, but it’s better late than never, isn’t it?
Plus it is a good idea to boost my blogging mood.

The question
for the first Salon is:

What are
your first impressions of the current classic you are reading?

I am now
reading Zola’s Germinal for Zoladdiction 2015. It is my second read, but my
first one was three years ago, so it feels like I’m reading a fresh novel but already
knew how it would end, and some of the characters were quite familiar.

Starting a
novel for the second (or more) time is a unique experience, specifically when
it is your most favorite book, on which you have high expectations of a great
reading. I feel the same way with Germinal, but I promised myself to take more
time in this reread to devour things I have probably missed on my first read.
So, since the beginning I have been paying more attention to the main character,
Étienne Lantier. I have praised him after my first read; and even made him my
most favorite book boy friend for Book Kaleidoscope 2012. My first impression
on him was an adorable and brave young man (I quite forgot why I loved him!).

Now that I
am following him, I realized that Étienne is an indecisive man. He couldn’t
decide whether he supposed to ask for job upon arrival at the Voreux, jobless
and penniless as he was. He has a crush for Catherine; he is jealous of Chaval,
yet always keeps a distance from Catherine (out of shyness?). Apart from the
indecisiveness, so far I am pleased with Étienne, he is a hard-worker and polite.
Although he inherited the intolerance to drinks from his drunkard parents, he
could refrain himself well enough.

Other than
that, Germinal is mostly regarded as Zola’s masterpiece. Now I see more clearly
why; it is the way he wove his sentences. Each chapter is always ended so
beautifully and satisfyingly, that you’d be torn between staying where you were
and devouring it, or continuing to the next as you were excited of what will
happen next. I remember that the ending was great, but now let me enjoy each
sentence with its own little greatness. Oh….I think I’m going to fall in love
more deeply with Germinal after this!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

It’s the 1st
of April, and—it’s not April fool!—The Zoladdiction
2015 is up today!

See the announcement to find all about this event. In short, I am hosting Zoladdiction
every April to praise and spread the knowledge (and addiction) of Émile Zola’s
works. To join us, you can simply sign up this event, read as much as
Zola’s works (or books about Zola) as possible, post your thoughts, and share
them in the linky (opened in April 10th). If you feel itchy to do some shopping (of Zola books
of course :D), you are more than welcomed to let us know, or to show off your
new Zola books. So, let’s read, let’s post, let’s shop, or let’s watch movies
adaptation, all because we are in Zoladdiction! :)

Note:

I encourage
you to post a brief wrap up in the end
of Zoladdiction (the linky will be closed in May 10th), and let us know how do you feel/think after
delving into Zola works for a month. I’m just curious how you all manage with
Zola….

The linky
for reviews and wrap up post will be up below this post, in April 10th.

In this year’s
event, I would also host:

GERMINAL
Read Along

You can read
it during April, on your own pace.

Please post your reviews at the same day of April
30th, 2015, on the linky (will be provided) below.